5 Things All hockey players should know about skates before buying

Hey guys Chris from Hockey Tutorial here
and today in this video we’re going to be taking a look at five things that
every single hockey player should know about hockey skates before they buy now
whether you’re new to the game when you’re buying your first pair or you’ve
been playing for a while and you’re just replacing a pair of skates this is still
a video that you need to watch because doesn’t matter what your experience is
in the game the equipment world is forever changing and the more
information you know about the equipment the better decisions you can make when
you’re buying your gear now to start this video off the first point and
easily the most important point that you need to consider when you’re buying a
pair of skates and that’s the fit now the appearance of the skate even though
a lot of players do base their choices on which skates they buy based on the
way that they look that has absolutely zero impact on your performance on the
ice whereas buying a scape that fits your feet correctly and offers you
comfort and support on the ice is definitely gonna go towards your
performance when we look at the two leading manufacturers in hockey CCM and
Bauer both of these manufacturers have three different lines of skates often
referred to as fit families the idea behind having three different lines of
skates is that each of these lines is constructed to fit a different type of
feet and the idea behind having three is that they’re able to offer a fit
solution for almost every single player in the world there are some exceptions
but we’ll come to that later on in the video so in other words one of these
three lines of skates either from CCM or Bauer will fit your feet better than the
other two options that they offer the only real way you’re going to be able to
figure out which one of these lines of skates is going to be the best option
for you is to try them on I know this isn’t always possible but we’re going to
offer a couple of solutions like how to size your skates from home if you don’t
have access to a hockey store you live in a country that there isn’t a hockey
store at all so on the subject to fit understanding the differences between
with Bauer the NYX is supreme and vapor line and with CCM the jetspeed ribcor
and super tacks line it’s important to understand the different types of
features and fits these skates offer so you’re able to make the best decision on
which one of them is going to be the best for you now taking a look at the
example of a foot the two elements that come to mind when we think about sizing
is going to be the length of the foot so if you’re a size 6.5 or a 7.5 and also
the width because skates also come in different widths D which is considered
quite a standard fit all the way up to E and EE which is considered quite a wide
it so as an example if you and your friend are both a size eight and you
both have the same width which is a D and you use a vapor skate in this case
say the one X you may find that your friend may not be able to fit in the one
X and if you’re wondering why even though you’re the same size it’s because
when you’re looking at skate sizes especially for manufacturers when
they’re creating the different lines we have in front of us there are a few
other elements that come into play that’s going to be the four-foot to the
instep the heel and also the ankle so when you look at a Nixa supreme and a
vapor skate even though they’re all the same size in the same width these are
the different elements and areas that have been changed or adapted as you go
through the different ranges of bauer skates that are available so although
you and your friend might have the same size and might have the same width
because your forefoot and instep might be much lower in other words you need
escape that has low volume to be able to offer you a nice snug fit but your
friend might have a high instep in a high forefoot area which means that the
skate that they use needs to have high volume to be able to wrap around those
areas properly and offer them the correct comfort and the correct fit and
support but that’s the reason going into a store trying on the skates before you
buy them is so important to do so a quick breakdown of the skates we have in
front of us starting off with Bauer’s vapor range now this is considered to
have low volume from they’re looking at their supreme skate which is considered
to have medium volume and lastly within Nick’s escape which has high volume when
we look over at CC M’s line of skates starting off with the jet speed that has
a low to medium volume from there the super tacks which has a medium volume
and lastly with the ribcor line of skates which is low volume but a
flexible skate construction in other words that means that the skates
construction is adaptable so whether you have a very narrow foot or a wide foot
the skates construction is able to adapt to the type of foot that you have
offering you a much better fit now this is a bit of an unusual style of skate
construction and is something that we have only ever seen in the ribcor range
from CCM now these are some of the elements that really need to be
considered when you’re trying to decide between the different lines of skates
that these two manufacturers offer moving on from there it’s going to be
some of the words or terminal that you used in
hockey skates now when you hear the term volume this relates to the amount of
three-dimensional space within a certain area in this instance it may pertain to
the forfeit and in step of the skate or even perhaps the heel this in other
words is just the amount of room or amount of space that that skate has in
that particular area so as we’ve already mentioned the Vapor skate being a low
volume skate it means that if you were to compare the amount of space around
the forefoot and in step of the Vapor skate in this skates the 1x compared to
the Nexus the Nexus would have high volume so it’d have a lot more space in
the areas in this case around the forefoot and in step of the foot so the
next key point is going to be price again there’s a lot of different parts
that make up this area and I’ve actually shot an entirely separate video called
cheap skates versus expensive skates I’ll link it down below I go into much
more detail explaining the differences to help you decide on being able to
balance out the budget that you have to spend on skates versus getting skates
that are going to be appropriate and be able to offer you adequate support on
the ice but when you’re looking at price the rule of thumb is the less you spend
the softer the skates construction and the less features the skate will have
versus the more you spend the stiffer the skates construction and the more
features that you’ll gain you have to be able to balance out your ability you’ll
build the amount of time that you’re going to be on the ice for per week all
of these different elements will help you decide on how much you need to spend
on a pair of skates but it’s definitely important and I would strongly recommend
watching the video down below in the video description from there it’s going
to be purchasing your skates online versus going into an actual physical
store and buying them I’ve already mentioned earlier on in the video that
being able to try on the skates before you buy them is incredibly essential but
a couple of points that you could keep in mind is most stores will allow you to
at least exchange the pair of skates providing you haven’t used them on the
ice they’ve not been sharpened they’ve not been baked so if you’re buying
online because you don’t have the option to be able to try the skates on
physically in store make sure that you read the terms and conditions of
returning products to the store that you’ve purchased them from because it at
least means that you can try the skates on before you bake them have them
sharpened because once you do that a lot of stores will not let you return them
but aside from this wherever possible I would always strongly recommend to go
into the store even if it means driving a few hours
it’s definitely worthwhile to be able to give you the best indication of which
skates are going to be the best option for yourselves if you don’t have a
hockey store as an option because I know there are a lot of countries that have
rinks that play hockey that don’t have hockey stores you could perhaps use the
option of trying on French skates or just being very very careful and looking
online but making sure that you understand the terms and conditions from
the store that you’re purchasing skates from the fifth and final point is going
to be other options although CCM and Bauer are the leaders
in manufacturing hockey equipment there are other options that are coming back
like graph and also newer options like true true hockey skates which were
previously VH before they were bought out are a custom skate now this is an
option that wasn’t always available to your everyday player or players that
didn’t play in professional leagues in North America what makes these gets
different from the other options that we see is true take a 3d scanned image of
your foot and construct the skate around the data that they get from that scan
this means if you have any miss shape and parts of your foot from either
injury or bone spurs or anything that you have on your foot that is irregular
which means it’s impossible or very difficult to fit into a skate off of the
shelf this is where true come in with this custom skate it’s built to the
exact dimensions of your foot which means it’ll fit you perfectly whether or
not you should have a custom scape could be a completely separate video and in
fact if you want to see that video comment down below and let me know and
we’ll construct a video around that subject but it’s important to mention
that that is another option from having visited CCM THQ in Montreal we know that
this is something that is coming to CCM in the very near future I was actually
lucky enough to have my foot scanned while I was at CCM HQ with their 3d
software so it’s something that I personally expect to see very very soon
and of course with Bauer already having their 3d foot scanner in many of their
major retail stores around the world I suspected something that we’ll also see
from Bauer having the ability to order a custom skate with ease is something that
every manufacturer should at least consider because there are a lot of
conditions a lot of reasons that players or people that skate aren’t able to fit
into your traditional off-the-shelf skates so it’s an option that does make
sense for us to be able to see all of the manufactures progressing into but of
course now that we see valor has their scanning labs CCM is also introducing
scanning technology as well as true already having scan
technology established so having custom skates just makes a lot of sense right
now as always guys thank you very much for
watching this video if you’ve gotten to the end thank you very much for watching
the entire video if you have any questions please leave them down below
in the comment section I’ll get to them as quickly as I can hopefully this video
was able to shed a little bit of light on some of the things you need to
consider when you’re buying a new pair of skates we have a lot more detail in a
lot more videos in the description down below so make sure you check those out a
big thank you to all of the major manufacturers for sending us these
skates to make the video possible big thank you to a hockey monkey for sending
us some of these skates as well and before you go anywhere guys please
remember to give the video a thumbs up subscribe and I’ll catch you in the next
one take care guys